The Duct Tape Kayak Project Wraps Up Another Great Season!

The Duct Tape Kayak team is proud to announce the end of another successful fundraising season! Together we were able to raise over $1200 to aid the Massachusetts Bay Chapter of Heroes on the Water in their mission to take our wounded veterans out kayaking fishing! We’d like to extend a warm and heartfelt thank you to everyone who made a donation to this important effort. The success of our project and that of Heroes on the Water is possible thanks to the generous support of folks like you!!!

Now what you’ve all been waiting for…the results of the drawing for our annual giveaway! Congratulations to Bill Vickstrom of Plymouth who was the lucky winner of our season-long raffle! Your grand prize is a brand-new Sea Whisper Paddle that was generously donated by our friends at the Seattle Sports Company!!! Happy Paddling, Bill!

The second leg of our journey with the Duct Tape Kayak was even more fun and exciting than the first! We identified a new charity and pulled off a radical redesign of the DTK over the winter, kicked off the season with a trip to the Run of the Charles, brought the DTK along for our local 4th of July Parade, shaved nearly 10 minutes off of our Great River Race time despite the oppressive heat, and connected with scores of donors at the Plymouth Waterfront Festival. It was a busy season to say the least but the DTK team made the experience truly incredible! Thank you Alex, Brett, and Corey for all of your hard work and creativity!

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Finally, we’d like to give a shout-out to our amazing sponsors. Doug Gray, the owner of Billington Sea Kayak, deserves a very special thank you for his continued and unwavering support of this project. Doug’s involvement extended well beyond providing the work space and donating most of the building materials. He was always there, as our friend and mentor, offering solutions and encouragement rather than doubts. Thanks, Doug for believing in us and helping to see us through! We’d also like to thank Seattle Sports, MTI Adventurewear, Duck Brand Tape, and Panera Bread for helping to support our project through their generous donations of various raffle prizes and building materials!

I speak for the entire team when I say that we’re wicked stoked for the 2014 season! We’ve learned a lot about building kayaks out of duct tape over the past few years and our goal is to make DTK version 3.0 our final prototype. The plan is to build a slightly shorter, ruddered-kayak (maybe 17-18’) and build it in one piece by strengthening certain critical areas. This should help to maximize the efficiency of the hull on the water while making it strong enough to car top to various events throughout the season.

Thanks for another great season! -DTK Team

Next season will also showcase a few exciting new additions to our programming schedule. The highlight of this past season for our team were events like the Plymouth Waterfront Festival where we were able to get out into the community to spread the word about the great work that Heroes on the Water does for our veterans. We plan to include additional fundraising events on the 2014 schedule so that we can better accomplish this goal. Also, there has been some talk within the group regarding the development of an exciting, new “build your own duct tape kayak” program to engage younger paddlers in our efforts. We’re full of big ideas for the DTK but, as always, we’re open to suggestions so please feel free to comment if you have any ideas!